A former Edo State Commissioner for Information, Kassim Afegbua, says the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, was seeking relevance by endorsing the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the 2023 general election.

Afegbua said Dogara’s decision to support Atiku, a former Vice President, was “all a matter of stomach infrastructure”, noting that the former House of Reps Speaker should have endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, a Christian, if he was not satisfied with the decision of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to fly a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket for the 2023 polls.

He added that Dogara lobbied to be the running mate of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, but was not chosen.

He said this via a statement issued and made available to The Star on Sunday.

The former commissioner expressed confidence that the APC will defeat Dogara in his Ward and state (Bauchi) in 2023, stressing that a southerner should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

Afegbua noted that no unselfish-minded person would concede to the retention of power in the North after Buhari’s eight years regime, adding that Dogara, as a former Speaker of the House of Reps, should be magnanimous when dealing with religious issues.

He stated: “I have just read a piece of news that says Yakubu Dogara and his co-travellers are endorsing Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 election. My first impression was to question why a gentleman of Idris Wada’s orientation would fall prey to this needless profiling of religion and politics; two mutually distinct institutions with different end-point belief.

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“Religion talks about eternity, politics talks about earthly engagements. How religion should dominate political discourse is still a matter of contradiction to me. Idris Wada, please run away from that group before they use your head to break coconut.

“When I read the contents of the statement issued by Yakubu Dogara and his ilks, I started searching for the names of the members who want to play God in the political aspiration of Asiwaju Tinubu.

“It is on record that Dogara wanted to be a running mate. No qualms about that. Should heaven now fall because someone else was selected? Is Atiku Abubakar they have endorsed a Christian? Why do we love promoting contradiction to the hilt just for our own pecuniary gains? I can bet that APC will defeat Dogara in his Ward, come 2023. And I know APC will also defeat PDP in Bauchi State too. I also saw my friend’s name Mohammed Kumaila. I just laughed. Persons who are neither here nor there, vacillating all over the place trying to find relevance.

“If you quarrel about APC choice, as a Christian, why not endorse a Christian presidential candidate in Obi, instead of Atiku a Muslim? This goes to show that it is all a matter of stomach infrastructure. Muktar Shagari is a member of PDP so declaring that he has endorsed Atiku appears to me like cracked music. Achuba, is mortally broke and seeking for pay cheque. They think Atiku Abubakar will open his vault for them; how laughable.

“A Christian, who truly believes in justice and equity, should naturally know that in a country of several pluralities, there is the need to balance all the algorithms of power. After a Northern presidency in Buhari, it should naturally be the turn of the South. But for dubious reasons, no altruistic-minded person would concede to retention of political power in the North after Buhari’s 8 years. I am aware they have been putting pressure on the president to support Atiku, their plot will fail abysmally.

“After a man has been speaker of the House of Reps in Nigeria, he should naturally be magnanimous when dealing with religious issues and not appearing so desperate to halt the trajectory of symbiotic relationship.

“Leave religion for the practitioners, leave politics for the politicians. The two are mutually exclusive. Beyond seeking relevance, there is absolutely nothing that is pushing Yakubu Dogara for taking this challenge of his anti-party diatribe,” Afegbua said.

The Star